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Salazar: Controlled burns can be conducted safely

By John Fryar Longmont Times-Call

Posted:
04/26/2012 04:41:25 PM MDT

Updated:
04/26/2012 04:43:31 PM MDT

BOULDER -- There's "a very meticulous process" in place for deciding whether or when to conduct controlled burns on federal lands, and for monitoring those prescribed burns once they're set, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Thursday.

Last month's Lower North Fork Fire in Jefferson County -- a wildfire that took three lives, burned more than 4,000 acres and destroyed 23 homes -- is believed to have exploded from the still-smoldering aftermath of a controlled burn by the Colorado State Forest Service.

On Wednesday, U.S. Sens. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, and Michael Bennet, D-Denver, sent a letter to the heads of the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, calling on them to review their prescribed-burn procedures in light of the Lower North Fork fire.

Udall wrote that as Colorado reexamines state agencies' prescribed burn procedures, federal agencies should reexamine their own procedures.

"It is our responsibility to do everything in our power to learn from this tragic fire so that we can be better prepared in the future," Udall and Bennet wrote.

Salazar, one of Colorado's former U.S. senators, said Bennet and Udall were correct to raise the issue.

But Salazar said the history of using controlled burns to remove brush, undergrowth and dead vegetation that could lead to more serious wildfires, particularly on federal lands under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Interior Department and the Bureau of Land Management, show that "we can, in fact, do it safely."

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No prescribed burns are scheduled at this point in the Roosevelt and Arapaho national forests, said Glenn Casmassa, the supervisor of those forests.

"We did some burning this winter," Casamassa said after a Thursday afternoon meeting with Boulder County Commissioners Will Toor and Deb Gardner. But he said current conditions, and last month's Lower North Fork Fire, have prompted officials to impose their own moratorium, for the time being, on further burns in the Arapaho and Roosevelt forests.

Salazar
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Fire restrictions the Forest Service announced last month for areas in western Boulder and Larimer counties remain in place, Casamassa told the Boulder County commissioners, because of higher-than-normal temperatures and dry conditions.

"We're seeing conditions" that could contribute to the threat of wildfires, Casamassa said, a month earlier than usual -- seasonal conditions he said are normally not seen until May or early June.

He said there were three lightning-caused fires last week in Larimer County's forested areas.

Salazar, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and the heads of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Forest Service assured reporters from across the nation during the Thursday morning news conference that the federal government is ready for this year's fire season.

Federal officials said that on average, their bureaus respond to more than 20,000 wildfires a year, suppressing all but a small percentage of them on initial attack.

U.S. Forest Service chief Tom Tidwell said in a statement issued at the start of the news conference that "federal firefighters, aircraft and ground equipment are strategically assigned to parts of the country as the fire season shifts across the nation. Firefighting experts will continuously monitor conditions and ove these assets as necessary to be best positioned and increase initial attack capabilities."

Also, Tidwell said, "we are in the midst of conducting accelerated restoration activities nationwide that will result in healthier forests and will lessen fire risks in years to come."

Udall and Bennet said in their Wednesday letter to Tidwell that they recognize that prescribed controlled burns are "a vital component of forest management that the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies have used successfully for many years to reduce wildfire risks and restore healthy forests. However, the tragecy of the Lower North Fork fire, which was ignited from an escaped prescribed burn from the Colorado State Forest Service, raises critical issues about how, when, and under what circumstances this tool should be used."

Earlier this month, Udall -- along with U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Denver, and U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora -- called for the U.S. Forest Service to conduct a scientific review of the Lower North Ford Fire an "after-action review" of what could be learned from that fire to help prevent future fire emergencies from turning ito tragedies.

Udall also has sent a letter to the U.S. Forest Service voicing his support for that agency's efforts to update its aging and diminishing air tanker fleet.

Tidwell said that "the vast majority of wildfires in our country are human caused," and he urged people to be cautious about activities that could spark such fires.

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